He is a Jamaican-born Canadian Muslim teacher, speaker, and author who lives in Qatar. He appears on Peace TV, which is a 24-hour Islamic satellite TV channel. He considers himself a Salafi who advocates a traditional, literal form of Islam.

Philips was a teacher of Islamic studies in an Islamic High School in Riyadh Saudi Arabia (Manaret Riyadh) for ten years after earning his BA in Medina. For ten years after that his site states he was a lecturer of Arabic and Islamic studies at the American University in Dubai, UAE. Following that he spent seven years in Qatar. He has been an "Islamic consultant and lecturer for the Islamic Information wing of Sh. Eed Charity". His sites state that he founded and headed a number of Islamic studies departments, schools and Islamic centers, such as the Islamic Information Center in Dubai and the Islamic studies department of Preston University, Ajman, UAE. During the First Gulf War Philips organized Islamic religious revival meetings for U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, during which (according to Philips) he converted thousands of soldiers to Islam.According to counter-extremism author J.M. Berger, some of the US military men and women who participated in his revival program were later recruited as volunteer trainers in the 1992-95 Bosnian War Salafi who advocates a traditional, literal form of Islam. Philips founded the Islamic Online University in Qatar in 2001, On his website, Philips writes that distance learning is becoming an effective tool by which ordinary Muslims may learn their faith.